Connecting With Volcanoes, Hawaiian Culture

While the conditioning required to be in shape for volleyball
and hiking may differ, first-year students Lauren
Ferguson and Rachel Spencer were thankful to have a
fitness base for their field trip to Hawai'i during the break
between the fall and spring semesters.

The Albion volleyball student-athletes joined about 30 of their
classmates as the learning in the geology-based Mountains and
Oceans and education-based Mauka and Makai first-year seminars
culminated during a 10-day field trip to Kona and Hilo.

A Troy native, Ferguson arrived at Albion with a concentration
in the Carl A. Gerstacker Institute for Business and Management and
an expectation to double-major in Spanish and international
business. The exposure to geology from professor Carrie Menold,
however, grabbed her attention enough to register for the
department's introductory class this semester.

"I picked the first-year experience for the field trip to
Hawaiʻi, but the class opened my eyes to something new,"
Ferguson, who remains committed to her Spanish major, said. "We saw
lava flows while hiking volcanoes. I had never hiked in my life and
we would go all the way down to the caldera of the volcano. I don't
know how to explain it other than to say it's mind-blowing. I would
have never seen anything like it if I had not gone on the field
trip."

Of course, the hiking involved in reaching the bottom of the
caldera (the bowl-shaped depression formed during very large
eruptions when the peak of the volcano collapses into an empty
reservoir left by erupting lava) meant the class had to make the
steep climb out. Kilauea caldera was formed hundreds of years
ago.

"We never talked about [the hikes] in class but they were
rigorous," Spencer, a Dexter High School graduate, said.
"You're going up and down and walking across craters. It's not like
a nice cement path. You had to walk on unstable rocks.

"The first hike through Kilauea caldera was the longest, and it
was rough," she added. "There was a beautiful view when we started.
We would finish one crater and then Dr. Menold would say we were
going down to another one. The walk back up felt it like it took
forever because you don't realize how steep it is. You don't
realize how far down you are until you have to start walking up.
When you are standing at the top of the crater looking down the
people look like specks."

The highest elevation the students reached was a drive up Mauna
Kea 9,000 feet above Hilo Bay, where they watched the
sunset.

"It was difficult to breathe because the air felt thin, but the
sunset was my favorite part of the trip, by far," Spencer said. "We
realized how high up we were and how we could take it all in. We
were above the clouds – it was clear – and it was the
clearest I could ever see the stars."

Education professor Suellyn Henke, who taught at the University
of Hawai'i-Hilo before coming to Albion in 2002, aims to give
students in the Mauka and Makai course an understanding,
appreciation, and respect for the history and cultures of the
peoples of Hawai'i that provides students with opportunities to
reflect upon their own cultural moorings and belief systems.

While Ferguson and Spencer were students in the geology-based
first-year-experience course, they still participated with the
students in the education class on a trip to Kamehameha Schools,
where they learned about Hawaiian culture and the impact of the
recent lava flow on the local community.

"It was a privilege to have the kids accept us," Spencer said.
"The students at the school have a lot of pride for their culture.
We exchanged leis as an introduction and one of the teachers taught
us a sitting hula. We interacted with the kids making Hilo braid
bracelets, weaving them out of leaves.

"It was neat to interact and learn what a typical day is like
for them," she added. "Some of the kids have a two-hour bus ride to
get to school. One of the kids lived where there was an active lava
flow. I can't imagine being a fifth grader and having to move."

Overall, Spencer said, the field trip was "much more than I
expected."

"We talked about volcanoes in class but you can never depict
what you are going to see," Spencer said. "Pictures don't do
Hawai'i justice. When you are physically looking at the lava, it is
stuff [Dr. Menold] can't get through to you in class."